I'm Mike Pope. I live in the Seattle area. I've been a technical writer and editor
for over 30 years. I'm interested in software, language, music, movies, books, motorcycles,
travel, and ... well, lots of stuff.

25 New Classic Book Covers. (Warning, slow to load.) It's not obvious to me what sorts of criteria were used to select these. Some I find interesting, some ... not so much. If you like this, you might also like the Penguin Design Award shortlist, which features interpretations of a limited number of titles. [EW site via jason kottke; Penguin, I forget, but probably from the same source]

Gallery: Top 10 Worst Aircraft Ever. For example: "Dr. William Christmas didn't know the first thing about planes when he designed one for the U.S. Army Signal Corps, and it showed. He didn't think the plane needed wing struts, so of course they fell off during the plane's maiden flight in 1918." (Insert comment here about companies that are awarded government contracts.) You have to admit, one of those Hiller VZ-1's would be cool.[1]

From the International Herald Tribune: "In many ways 'Dancing' is an almost perfect piece of Internet art: It is short, pleasingly weird and so minimal in its content that it is open to a multitude of interpretations. It could be a little commercial for one-world feel-goodism. It could be an allegory of American foreign policy: a bumptious foreigner turning up all over the world and answering just to his own inner music. Or it could be just a guy dancing." [via GOOD magazine blog]

[1] Seth worries that I have a trainspotting kinda thing going on with flying machines. Not really; I just grew up with aviation. But for other candidates, read the comments on this little slideshow. Sheesh.